SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO
When everything around us comes crashing down we start looking for something to hold on to, the light at the end of the tunnel, for alteration subsequently brings about so much uncertainty that we feverishly endeavour to avoid it. And in those times, when nothing seems to be the same, there is only one thing that knows no alteration, nor no impediment, one elusive concept of the ideal and eternal love that a plethora of people ardently desire. The pure and unyielding love, which is depicted in Shakespeare's sonnets as an invincible power that defies time and rises above the waves of destruction, confronting all vicissitudes that may afflict the course of our lives. That is the sole feeling that qualifies as true love.
Shakespeare's idea of love may often seem like a utopian, intangible concept, but, in reality, such a powerful feeling that overcomes any impediment can be experienced by anyone. In fact, there is only a short list of characteristics that epitomize this ideal love, a list of things that it needs to overcome or to resist in order to prove its veracity.
True love is not susceptible to the passage of time, nor to the changes that may occur and it admits no impediments. Thus, it is a perpetual feeling which once ignited knows no limits: it never fades, its nature never changes, and with every challenge that it faces it becomes more powerful and intense. Love is an uplifting and enlightening feeling and, as in Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 it is likened to "the star to every wandering bark", it guides us and helps us find our way whenever we feel lost.
In fact, we are acquainted with a timeless story of such true love in the 1965 romantic drama film "Doctor Zhivago", which antithetically presents the harsh reality from that epoch and the uplifting love story of Yuri and Lara, who fell in love while serving as a doctor and nurse on the front lines of the Russian Civil War, but after six months, irrespective of the profound love existing between them, they parted, knowing that they might never see each other again, as they were both already married.
However, as Zhivago's estate in Moscow was designated for public housing and living conditions were becoming increasingly reprehensible Yuri and his family decided to move to Varykino. One day, when Yuri went to a neighbouring town he met Lara once again and, from that moment on, the love story between them kept flourishing and the intensity of their feelings kept growing with every day that passed. The life they lived together and the challenges they faced proved that their true love knew no time boundaries and it was always their guiding star as it helped them find peace throughout those harsh times. And even after their deaths their love remained existent and it reemerged through their long lost daughter.
Therefore, what does Yuri and Lara's love story really prove?
Well, it proves that true love is not only a utopian concept, an ideal that everyone desires to acquire, but few actually do it. It proves that love is one of the simplest, yet complex feelings, one that doesn't require much, but once experienced it enriches and empowers us. It defies any law there may exist and, most importantly, it exists even after death, for true love always leaves behind irremovable marks.